[EMS] Body of Steel - Level 30!

Hi guys! With the ongoing daily grind and the current Haste event, there's plenty of Nodestones to be found. Thus, it didn't take long to find the last duplicates to max out Body of Steel, since it was so close to Level 25 anyway.

Having Body of Steel going from Level 29 to 30 is quite a difference, as its duration gains one additional second and the max stacks goes from 10 to 11. Although as I mentioned in my in-depth coverage of the skill, it's a challenge to hit 11 stacks within a reasonable amount of time - even at something like the Inferno Wolf you'll only have max stacks near the end of the duration. I still use this skill as often as I can, but even after using the skill for 3 years, it remains one of those "balanced" skills that's certainly useful but not too exciting. The Superstance is still pretty great, though.

Anyway, so that huge Zipangu revamp came out of nowhere a couple of days ago. I'm quite happy to see that Nexon put some effort into it. Heck, this revamp is significant because they made sure to be thorough with the changes as aside from Present Tokyo and Neo Tokyo, no substantial part of Zipangu was left unchecked. World Tours have achievements now, huh? And suddenly, after 14 years, Neo Tokyo's best-in-slot ammunition Armor-Piercing Bullet has been dethroned by Showa's Glass Marble. Although there's still use for APB (and Giant Bullet), seeing as you can only obtain one untradeable Glass Marble per account. They still haven't dethroned MTK's after all this time, though. 

Gee Zipangu, why do you always get to provide all of the best ammunition in the game? Unless we consider (defunct) supplements such as Small Flames and Blaze/Glaze Capsules to be a relevant discussion, as these had no equals.

If there's one thing I *didn't* like about the revamp, is that most of the Showa quests have been reset. I get that they reworked the rewards for most of these quests, but I really did not appreciate the need to sacrifice a third Newspaper Hat and yet another Frying Pan just to have my quests completed again. At least there were plenty of Auction House listings for these Gachapon items, but aside from that, most of the Showa quests have aged poorly in conjunction with the 2016 Mushroom Shrine revamp. Most of these modern maps contain a selection of different enemies, so there are no longer "pure spawn" maps for i.e. Cloud Fox and Water Goblin, which made farming those hundreds (!) of Fox Tails and Cucumbers tedious. Just make sure you don't die from The Boss, because the map is no longer protected and you'll lose way more than 1% if you do.

Either way, new Zipangu stuff is always hype. Having Tonosama soul shards is in line with those Maple M's Auf Haven soul shards I spotted last year, so that's a good prospect for Neo Tokyo's inevitable return... Most people forget that Kaede Castle is part of Neo Tokyo's tutorial, after all.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 253!

Ding! I've been doing daily grinds again for the past couple of weeks, and the goal is Level 255, which unlocks Limen. At the current rate, I should reach that level somewhere in the second half of this year. After that, I'll see if I still feel like continuing the daily grind all the way to 260 or 265. It's too early to make a call on that yet.

Anyway, that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Erda Shower - Level 30!

Did you know that if you stand on this piano roof in Ristonia, the background music changes?

Sup guys! Today I've been able to max out Erda Shower. There's not really much else to talk about, other than it maxed out the same way as Rope Lift did. Combo Death Fault and Body of Steel should follow later this year.

So, about the Neo update. The Neo update introduces us to one new 5th Job skill, but it's locked behind a specialized Nodestone that can be opened only after Level 265. Well dammit, this again.

It's not the first time when a new 5th Job skill was released far beyond my current level. The same happened with the Ark update, which introduced us to the fourth 5th Job skill wave with Spider in Mirror. Although back then, I was only a handful of levels away from Spider in Mirror's required level of 235. As a result, my blogpost covering this skill was only delayed by a couple of months - not the worst that could happen. This time though, the gap between Level 252 and 265 is incredibly steep. Even if I were to start grinding all day for weeks, I'd still not be anywhere close to Level 265. Then there's the other issue: obtaining that new skill.

The new Nodestone (Mitra's Nodestone) provides players the Crest of the Solar skill, and it can only be obtained from Seren. Unlike Spider in Mirror, there is no initial Skill Quest that provides players a single free copy of this new skill, so Crest of the Solar is truly exclusive to Seren's loot table. Undoubtedly, the EMS community will make short work of Seren after release, but for the first couple of months, the demand for these Nodestones will be rough. Even if I were fortunate enough to secure an early copy, I wouldn't be able to obtain the skill until after Level 265 anyway.

Basically, unless Nexon changes some of the rulings regarding opening Mitra's Nodestones, the Crest of the Solar skill will remain exclusive to a small number of players, and I won't be able to release my blogpost for the eight skill wave any time soon. It's a damn shame, because I was personally looking forward to trying out the new skill and having more dailies and content to explore - but all of that is unfortunately, still quite far away.

Anyway, while I may not be able to release the eight skill wave blogpost this Summer, I am probably going to substitute that vacant "time slot" with the dedicated Enrage blogpost, which covers the recent changes made to that skill. Since I have my hands full on the Xenoblade Definitive Edition article and progress on my Hailfire Droid, I don't want to worsen the amount of workload. Truth is, it's been quite difficult to spend time on the DE article lately because I feel somewhat burned out on figuring out how to tackle some parts of it. This is why I mentioned in my year summary that I'm expecting to have it released this Summer, as that provides me some much-needed breathing space.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #8002...

Behold, one of the most complicated LEGO^® sets of all time! At least, that is the general consensus about this model.

As with most sets I blog about, this is one of those "wanted it back then" and has been sitting comfortably among my most wanted sets of all time. Had plenty of opportunities to purchase one on Bricklink over the past couple of years, but I decided to go for it "last year". Unfortunately as I mentioned back then, there were no reasonably priced copies for a sealed condition. That changed earlier this week. Yoink!

So, what's so interesting about this set? It basically is a contraption that heavily relies on gravity and rubber bands to deploy several mechanisms in a sequence when it rolls over a hard surface. Long story short: fold up ball, roll it over the floor, it then opens up. It's nothing short of impressive; it's a mechanical wonder. It's over-engineered to hell, and for it's madness and ambition it has gained its reputation. Those kind of pursuits in life will always catch my interest.

I'm very curious to see which production run this is going to be, given that this is one of those exceptional cases where having the early production runs is not beneficial for the model's functionality... I guess I'll know in a moment.

Let's hope that those damn Flex Cables survived the past 21 years, and that I won't break them this time.

EDIT: It seems this one is the original #4132567 release with the #4133085 Amendment sheet. The Flex Cables have survived the build. The set also comes with a lifetime supply of spare rubber bands! Hooray!

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 252!

Ding! Another big event, another Typhoon Storm Growth Potion. Having a level up in January has been a thing since 2016, huh? Let's see if I can get to 255 this year.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!